Thursday, 3 November 2011

Parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Leda and the Swan?

Credit: Wellcome Library, London

"Four grotesque dwarfish figures: a hunchbacked man and an
old midwife help a woman give birth, producing eggs, while on the left a woman
boils a donkey in a cauldron to produce gruel for the mother. In the
foreground, babies break out of the eggs: possibly a parody of Leonardo da
Vinci's painting of Leda and the swan." Credit: Wellcome Library, London

"Pictures of crowds of tiny dwarfs are often attributed to
Faustino Bocchi. The present picture, however, is in a very different style,
showing the dwarfs much larger by comparison with the size of the painting than
is usual in paintings firmly attributed to Bocchi. An alternative attribution
to Pietro della Vecchia (Pietro Muttoni) has been suggested." Credit: Wellcome Library, London